Shinichi and Ran's Weekend Off
by Swagnarok
Summary: To investigate a man "who is not seen but once in a thousand years", a man who's supposed to be dead, Conan and Nancy travel to the countryside and rent a room in the Maison Ikkaku. What they didn't realize before coming is that the place is a popular honeymoon resort. Episode 1000, Two-Hour Special.
1. Chapter 1

(The _joshiki_ - _maku_ , which was the striped curtain used in Kabuki performances, was lifted, to the sound of distinctly Japanese percussion instruments.)

(On the stage was the main ensemble of _Meitantei_ _Konan_ : Conan, Nancy, Kogoro, Eri, Dr. Agasa, Haibara, Sonoko, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, Genta, Heiji, Kazuha, Inspector Megure, Takagi, Sato, Chiba, Shiratori, Kobayashi, and Masumi. They were all dressed either in kimonos or yutakas.)

(" _Konichi wa_ ," Conan said. "The start of this new year, 2021, marks the 25th anniversary of the Detective Conan anime and the 27th anniversary of the manga.")

("Looking forward to this new year, we hope that you our fans will continue to watch the show and the movies, and read the manga as it is serialized in _Shounen Sunday_ ," Kogoro said.)

("We can promise you a year full of exciting new developments and plot twists," Heiji said. "I'm telling you, you aren't gonna want to miss-

("Hold it!" Conan said. "Heiji- _niisan_ , you haven't been skipping ahead, I take it?")

("Whatever could you mean?" Heiji said, a grin on his face that meant he wasn't even going to try to deny it.)

("You know exactly what I mean!" Conan said. "You've been reading the manga, haven't you?")

("Maybe, maybe not," Heiji said, still grinning.)

("Oh come on, that's so uncool!" Sonoko said. "That means you know exactly what's gonna happen!")

(" _Oi_ , Heiji," Kazuha said, whispering. "Does anything...interesting happen between the two of us this coming year?")

(" _Aho_ , I'm not telling you that," Heiji said, blushing. "You're just gonna have to wait and see for yourself.")

("Anyways," Nancy said, facing the screen, "2021 should prove to be an exciting year for Detective Conan, as we hope to provide you with new original content, episodes, storylines, and of course mysteries.")

("And don't forget about the fan service!" Sonoko said.)

(Wrong series, Conan thought with a deadpan look.)

("THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!" they all said, bowing as the curtain closed.)

 **OPENING**

(White Sails by Maroon Festival)

(Conan's Voice: No pain, no gain! In the course of exposing the flaws in others you'll often uncover unwanted truths about yourself! This series has now reached 1000 episodes! So to celebrate, today's episode is about...Wait, what do you mean that we...No! No! Just no! Screw this! I never signed up for this! This time somebody else can do the stupid summary!)

(Sonoko's Voice: Alright then, I'll do it! In today's adventure, two lovebirds go and have a great time at the Maison Ikkaku! You're not gonna wanna miss this one! Oh yeah. And there's also a case, but what else is new? I need to wrap this up, so...Something, something, Detective Conan. There you go. Cue the OP.)

(Nancy's Voice: Huh? How can you not know it after all this time? Whatever.)

If you look now you can see them departing from the docks

Bravely embarking beyond the horizon visible from the shore

Venturing into the endless deep-blue expanse we call the earth

Filled with anticipation and the realization there's no turning back

A trail blazed by the trade winds, overhead, blowing on their hair

Their time-worn wooden craft dipping into the crashing waves

The furthest out of the land-based seagulls seeing them off at last

As they boldly tread where none of their kin have gone before

"Isn't it great to be alive in these times?" the captain says, leaning against the deck

"Our forefathers made the way for this glorious day: let's not let them down, eh?"

White sails unfurled, capturing the wind, our time is here and now

We are the human race, the inheritors of a momentous undertaking

Today we write the next chapter in the timeless story of the proud

So they'll say of us, "They pushed the boundary to the next level."

 **Shinichi and Ran's Weekend Off**

 _January 17, 1991, 11:06 AM, Local Time_

 _Shaikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain_

 _His mechanical wind-up alarm clock had failed to go off. Again. He should've known that going away present from his prankster best friend was invariably gonna be rigged or defective in some way._

 _So instead, he was woken up to this:_

 _"Hey, Brian, what the h*ll you doing? You're due in the air in 20 minutes. We're fueling your craft now."_

 _And with that, Brian practically leapt out of bed and grabbed his pants._

 _He'd taken off on his first sortie against Iraqi targets at around 3:00 earlier that day/night. Since then, he'd done 3 more sorties before being allowed to take a break and sleep it off for a few hours back at base._

 _On January 15, 1991, the deadline set by the UN Security Council's Resolution 678 had expired. Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq, had been ordered to withdraw his forces from Kuwait or else "all necessary means" would be used to force them out. At around 2:20 AM of January 17, the US launched an Apache helicopter raid on Iraqi radar installations to create a gap in the country's IADS (Integrated Air Defense System). From there, planes from the Coalition, the greatest multinational military force seen since World War II, poured down upon Iraqi positions, especially targeting the Iraqi Air Force, its air defense and Scud launchers, and its Command and Control bunkers, which would serve to demoralize and scatter the notoriously centralized Iraqi army, which was known to discourage its officers from taking any kind of individual initiative or being equipped to do so should the need arise._

 _Iraq was surrounded: The Coalition scrambled fighters and dropped missiles and bombs from Carriers located in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. War planes were launched from Coalition-friendly and NATO air bases, especially the Incirlik Air Base located in Turkey, forcing the Iraqis to split their forces into northern and southern theaters of operation._

 _The night before, President Bush had announced the US's objectives in and rationale for taking military action against Iraq: To repel Iraqi aggression, but more importantly to uphold the international law and bring about a "new world order" void of military conflict between states. The Coalition was comprised of many different countries, most notably the UK, which was still led at this time by the "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, but people generally agreed that the US led the way in this fight._

 _The army, navy, and air force of the United States of America had spent the last 45 years preparing for a war with the Soviet Union that never came. Now that it turned out their opponent was little old Iraq, battered from eight bloody years of war with Iran and situated along flat desert terrain where its armies would have nowhere to hide from the Coalition air strikes, they were super ready to get the job done, even if they weren't aware quite yet how much of a curb stomp this fight would be. The Persian Gulf War would showcase to the world just how powerful the Americans had become, and pave the way for Bush's "new world order" that would come to pass at the end of that year when the U.S.S.R. collapsed from within, leaving America as the world's sole superpower._

 _Corporal Brian McDowell, age 24, put his uniform on, brushed his teeth, tied his bootlaces, put his dog tags around his neck, and went to be briefed._

 _He only had about 15 minutes to spare, but it was enough that he got the gist of the mission. Reconnaissance conducted in the past few hours gave him and his team a general idea of where to strike._

 _He ran back to the barracks and grabbed his Walkman. He never got into a plane without it._

 _The F-4G Phantom II equipped with "Wild Weasel V" capabilities having been prepped for the mission, he climbed inside the cockpit and took it to the runway._

 _"Rising up, back on the streets...Did my time, took my chances..."_

 _"Mission control, am I clear for takeoff?" Brian asked._

 _"Roger that, Griffin One. You are clear for takeoff. Godspeed."_

 _"Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet, Just a man and his will to survive..."_

 _His light fighter-bomber craft specializing in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) combat role went up into the air and on its way towards the war zone._

 _"It's the Eye of the Tiger, it's the thrill of the fight, Rising up to the challenge of our rivals..."_

 **Scene Transition**

 **Present Day, Tokyo, Japan**

She pulled on the door and stepped inside. It was nice and cool in there.

But she hadn't come to cool off, or even for pizza, though she did plan on having some while she was here.

There was nobody else there, save the employees.

"Hi, welcome to Pizza Hutt," the college-age guy in an apron and a hat said. "Are you here for the buffet or would you like to order off the menu?"

"Um, the buffet, I guess," Nancy said. "But um, first of all, I'd like to access Line Zero."

"Huh?"

"You know, Line Zero. Or do you want me to tell you the password first?"

She just got a blank stare from him.

"...This isn't the right Pizza Hutt, is it?"

"Dunno what you're talking about. Sounds important or something, but I just work here."

Nancy sighed and got up. "That's alright. Sorry to bother you. I'll be going now."

 **Fifteen Minutes Later**

She arrived at the other nearby Pizza Hutt.

"Hi. Can I take your order?"

"Depends. Do you know what Line Zero is? "

"Oh, you must be that girl Ran Mouri we've been told about," the middle-aged woman said. "But just in case, what's the password?"

Hmm, let's see, Nancy thought. Shinichi said they normally change it about once a month. The last call was more recent than that, so it should be the same...but then again, Elena-san called us last time, so...

Nancy's phone rang. It was Elena's number.

She answered:

"How did you know I was calling?"

"I have my sources," Elena said. "By the way, I'd just like to add you really screwed up bad mixing up the two Pizza Hutts. Now we're gonna have to reboot that employee you asked about us. He's gonna want to know where those last two weeks of his life went."

"Reboot? That's what you call it now?"

"Eh. Reboot has a nice ring to it. Anyways, what did you want to contact me about? Not to sound rude, but I'm not one for leisurely calls. I sincerely hope you had a good reason for calling."

"That depends. Does Nobutaro count as important?"

There was silence on the other end.

Hmm? Nancy thought. Did she hang up?

"...Where did you hear that name?" Elena demanded.

"A dead girl told me."

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. It's not important. Let's just say I have someone on my side, somebody who was nice enough to tell me about Nobutaro. Her description of him was short but telling...and I think I might've recently met him."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"What? Was I not supposed to do that?"

"Nobutaro has been dead for nine years," Elena said.

"So? You've got that miracle drug, right?"

"No. That wouldn't have done any good in his case," Elena said. "His body was completely destroyed in the freak accident that killed him."

"Were there any witnesses to this?" Nancy asked.

"Yes. His death was witnessed by a large number of people. The Black Organization saw fit to investigate the matter and concluded that he was truly and irreversibly dead."

"Hold on," Nancy said. "Nobutaro was connected to the Organization? How? Was he their arch-enemy?"

"On the contrary," Elena said. "Nobutaro was venerated as the Oracle of Milcom. The Council of the Black Organization held him and his prophecies in such high regard that he has shaped their policies and objectives even to this day. Of all the figures in the history of the Organization, only Hajime Suzuki has had a more profound impact on who they are as a group."

"What did he look like?" Nancy asked.

"Well, at the time of death he was an old man. He was born around 1950, I think, which honestly wouldn't make him so extremely old, but over the course of his lifetime the persistent use of his powers took a heavy toll on his body. When I last saw him before his death he looked like he could've been eighty."

Well that doesn't add up to the man I saw, Nancy thought. "Hey, where did he die at?"

"It's a place called Maison Ikkaku. Located in Nara."

 **Scene Transition**

 **Three Days Later**

"Thanks for taking us up here, Professor," Conan said.

According to the sign, they were now nearing Maison Ikkaku, a rural but well-frequented establishment.

"You know," Nancy said to Haibara, "I was never clear on why you had to come up here with us."

"There's a donut shop we passed about 15 miles back that sells really good cinnamon and creme flavored ones," Haibara said. "I figured the Professor would've stopped there on the way home, so I came to make sure he doesn't stuff his face. Our goal is for him to lose 10 pounds this year, and we haven't been off to a very good start."

"Just admit it," Dr. Agasa said with a chuckle. "You want one too, don't you?"

"Maaaybe," she responded cheekily.

 **Scene Transition**

They finished removing their bags from the trunk.

"When you're finished here, call me and I'll come pick you up," the Professor said.

"Okay, thanks."

With that, Dr. Agasa rolled the window up and drove off.

Maison Ikkaku was a large, Western-style two story building. Behind it was a downward-sloping field that stopped at a lake. The lake was fairly large. If one walked around the edges of the slope leading to the lake they'd find themselves in the car lot where guests parked their vehicles. If one was lucky enough to have a room at the back of the building, they would have a scenic view of the lake and the plains and wooded areas surrounding it. Of course, such rooms were slightly more expensive.

Conan and Nancy went inside, into the lobby.

They passed by a man and a woman:

"I had a great time here," the woman said.

"Yeah," the man said. "We should come back here for one of our anniversaries someday."

"Huh," Nancy said. "Looks like they might've come here for their honeymoon or something."

They went up to the front desk.

"Um, hi, " Conan said. "If I'm not mistaken a reservation has been made for us."

"It was for Room 223, I think," Nancy said.

When Sonoko heard about their plans to investigate this place, she was all too eager to help them out. She even called ahead and paid for them to have a room here the next few days.

She was a little too eager, Conan thought suspiciously. Oh well. It'd only been twelve days since she found out about Ran and me.

The concierge checked the computer. "Yup, a reservation has been made for this room. Are your parents waiting elsewhere to access the room?"

"Um, yes," Conan lied.

"Okay, and the room is made out to...?"

"Um, is it Conan Edogawa and Nancy Akechi?"

"No, that's not it," the concierge said.

"Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri?" Nancy asked.

"Um, almost, but not quite," the concierge said.

Good grief, Conan thought with a deadpan look. That total b***h, she always has to meddle in our business, doesn't she?

"Is it made out to Shinichi and Ran Kudo?" Conan asked, feeling really uncomfortable and awkward saying it out loud.

"Yes, that's it," the concierge said. "Here's the room key, and I hope your parents enjoy their honeymoon."

"H-Honeymoon?!" Nancy exclaimed, mortified as she realized what this place was for and why Sonoko was so happy to help the two of them reserve a room here.

 **Scene Transition**

After taking all their bags up to Room 223, they wanted nothing more than to lie down and take a quick rest, when-

"Wait, what the...!"

"There's ONLY ONE bed?!" Nancy said, blushing but also a bit upset.

"Sonoko did this for sure," Conan said. "She's had to have asked them for a room with only one bed."

"Why would she do this?!" Nancy said. "I mean, sure, she always says we're like a married couple, but this is taking it to an extreme!"

"I'm going to go down there and ask them for a different room," Conan said.

 **Scene Transition**

"HEEEEEEHHH?!" Conan said. "What do you mean there are no available rooms?"

"I'm sorry," the Concierge said. "That's just the way it is. Some anonymous person called us and rented out every available room besides the one you're staying in."

Sonoko, Nancy thought, a bit teed off, did you really go to such lengths to make us sleep in the same bed?

"But didn't a couple leave earlier as we were walking in?" Conan asked.

"That room has already been reserved by somebody else a few hours back," the Concierge said. "By somebody else, actually."

"Can you tell us who it was?" Nancy asked.

"A middle-aged man. Sounded Osakan."

And then he walked in.

Shigeo Yasuda.

"T-That's him," Nancy whispered.

"That he's here cannot be a coincidence," Conan said. "Is he hear to thwart our investigation or-

"You should probably whisper a little more quietly," Yasuda said.

He went up to the front desk. "Ey. I'm here for Room 215. Name's Yasuda. Ya' gonna gimme my room key?"

The Concierge handed it in to him. "Do you have anybody here with you?"

"Nah. It's just me and my left hand."

Conan then noticed that Yasuda was holding a magazine. It looked rather crude and sexually suggestive.

"Yup, I can't keep stuff like this around the house where I'm living now," Yasuda said. "The folks who own it have a young daughter. I wouldn't want to accidentally expose her to something like this. So I just decided to take off work, come here, and enjoy myself a little while."

"Um, excuse us," Conan said. "How many beds does his room have?"

"Um, two, I think," the Concierge said.

" _Neh_ , Yasuda-san," Conan said. "You remember us, right?"

"Of course. We solved that case at your school not too long ago. What's up?"

"Um, if it isn't too much of a bother," Nancy said, "would you mind switching rooms with us?"

"Sure thing," Yasuda said casually.

 **Scene Transition**

 _January 17, 1991, c. 7:00 PM, local time_

 _The large desert expanse of Western Iraq was the "hunting grounds" in what would be remembered as the Great Scud Hunt._

 _Saddam Hussein had an extensive arsenal of Scud missiles and launchers, modified to increase range, that he employed as weapons of terror against neighboring Arab states and against Israel. One of these, the Al Hussein missile, had a range of 400 miles and could be fired from a mobile launcher, and could be re-fired in less than 30 minutes time. It could hit Jerusalem with a 1,000 lb. warhead comprised either of explosive material or chemical/biological weapons, such as Mustard Gas, Sarin, Anthrax, and even Smallpox, which had otherwise been eradicated 10 years earlier but had reportedly been used as a weapon of war against Iran during the 1980s._

 _Saddam was firing these weapons at Israeli cities with the objective of provoking the Jewish state into fighting back, which would remove the Arab states and perhaps Turkey from the war, as they would adamantly refuse to fight alongside Israel. This would deprive the US and its allies of access to the air bases and friendly airspace needed to strike Iraq. In short, if Israel took the bait then the war would be over. Iraq would be free to annex Kuwait, and then perhaps go on to invade Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states, which would allow Saddam to corner the world's oil market and bring the West to its knees. Saddam's entire legacy was riding on this war and its outcome, which was why he dubbed it "The Mother Of All Battles"._

 _For the time being, the Israelis were showing the proper amount of courage and restraint in the face of Iraq's indiscriminate bombing of their homeland, but it was uncertain how long they'd be willing to just sit around and do nothing. Therefore, the Coalition was doing everything in its power to target and destroy mobile and stationary, or "static", Scud launchers scattered across Iraq. The Coalition air forces were patrolling the skies and searching the ground below for Scud, even as British special forces operated on the ground for this same purpose. However, it would prove a difficult fight. The Iraqis employed a large number of decoys and littered the terrain with electromagnetic interference. Furthermore, they had a large number of hidden bunkers to conceal their launchers. Most of the Scud launches were happening at night._

 _Brian and his squadron had spent all day conducting missions in this theater of operations and elsewhere in Iraq, relying upon data collected ahead of time. He had a few close calls, but by now he was starting to lose the jittery-ness that came with being on a battlefield. These missions had by now become a routine matter. He figured that if he hadn't died any of the last few times around, he'd be okay this time as well. All he had to do was his job. Pretty straightforward._

 _There was a sudden flash out of the corner of his eye. He saw it, on his 2 o'clock:_

 _A Scud had been launched._

 _He checked his instruments. Then he made a decision:_

 _By the angle of launch, the Scud's intended destination was probably Israel. Having just been launched, the Scud was still in its boost phase, where it was just beginning to pick up speed. Under such conditions, an air-to-air intercept was possible, if improbable. Being a ballistic missile, the Scud would go up, in an arching motion, instead of traveling along a linear flight path. His craft was currently about 55,000 feet up, with a maximum possible elevation of about 60,000 feet; once it reached maximum speed, the Scud would be moving at about 0.9 miles per second. That meant from the time of launch he had somewhat over 10 seconds to act before it transcended his own elevation and journeyed unhindered into the upper atmosphere. The window of opportunity would be very small, so he knew he had to make the most of it._

 _To make this intercept would require him to break formation and quite possibly even abort the mission. He would be violating orders and subjecting himself to court martial. However, he knew in his heart that he had to do it: Who knew where that missile would hit? What if it struck a bustling apartment complex or a crowded area? Dozens, or even hundreds, of innocent people could die. Brian's fiancee was pregnant with their son. What right had he to return home to his own son if he let somebody else's child die a horrible death?_

 _"Griffin Two, I'm going after the bogey. You're in charge of the mission. Over and out."_

 _"Wait, what-_

 _Brian hung up._

 _He broke formation and raced to put his craft in position for the intercept._

 _Alright, he thought, I got you..._

 _"NOW!" he screamed, deploying heat-seeking missiles._

 _And..._

 _The Scud soared high above his position._

 _He missed. The missiles raced forwards, aiming at nothing. A display of impotency that seemed rather Freudian to him._

 _Taking in what had just happened, he sighed. "Griffin Two, I'll be rejoining formation ASAP."_

 _"Roger that, Griffin One. We'll note in our logs that the launcher was last spotted at-_

 _*boom*_

 _"Griffin One, what was that?"_

 _"I've been hit! "_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"I don't know what it was, but I'm going down! My present location is 57 miles southeast of Ar Rutbah and closing. Tell Kate...Tell Kate that I love her. Griffin One, signing out for the last time."_

 _And soon after he crashed._

 **Scene Transition**

They set their bags down in the new room, which had two beds.

"Alright then," Conan said. "Now that that's over with, where do we begin our investigation?"

"We should probably find an employee who was working here nine years ago," Nancy said. "But first: what time is it?"

"Umm...12:59."

"We should get some lunch."

"Yeah."


	2. Chapter 2

He put the headphones in and started the playlist.

He opened his suitcase and took a good look at the tools he'd brought with him to do the job.

" _Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, Ooo they're red white and blue_..."

A Glock with a silencer, a taser, some chloroform and two spare rags, and an array of knives.

Yasuda thought about it for a moment and took out a knife, or, more specifically, a Ka-Bar. He figured he wouldn't need a gun for his marks, and in any case he wasn't sure if anybody need die this time around. If the knife was discovered on his person by some chance it wouldn't raise near as many red flags as a gun.

He put his foot on the bed and raised his pant sleeve. He put the knife in place pressed against his skin, applied a thin layer of tape, and then rolled his pant sleeve back down. He put his foot back on the ground.

He closed the suitcase, put a lock on the handle for extra measure, slid it under the bed, and headed out the door.

" _It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son_..."

 **Scene Transition**

Every day, the staff of Maison Ikkaku would hold an outdoor grillout on the sloping natural terrain surrounding the lake. In the meantime, some of the younger couples opted to go swimming in the lake, whereas some of the middle-aged couples who were either here to celebrate an anniversary or had remarried went for a walk in the woods. A mixture of both opted to play volleyball on the slope, and to stand around talking to each other while drinking beer.

Conan and Nancy went downstairs and passed by the lobby when:

"Yes, we're here for Room 216."

They stopped and gawked at the scene. The two people in question were holding hands, so clearly they were a couple. Conan spotted a ring on the man's left finger, and then a ring on the woman's left finger, so they were married.

"Here you go," the receptionist said. "Enjoy your honeymoon."

And then, the couple walked out towards the car to grab their stuff.

"Th-they couldn't have been older than us," Conan whispered, blushing. "The real us, that is."

Nancy nodded. "Maybe they're not really...?"

They stared at each other, could both tell what the other was thinking, and then both dashed towards the front door at the same time.

Those two people were unloading the car.

"E-Excuse us," Conan said sheepishly. "You wouldn't mind if we helped you with that?"

 **Scene Transition**

Soon, they had everything unpacked in the room.

"We appreciate it," the man said.

"You two are so cute, by the way," the woman said. "Are you twins?"

*Cue derp eyes*

"Huh? Did we say something wrong?" the man asked.

"Uh, no," Nancy said awkwardly.

"A-Anyways!" Conan said. "Are you two really married?"

They both laughed.

"I'll bet you're thinking, 'they don't look old enough to be married', right?" the woman said.

"Well we are," the man said. "I'm Rei Tachibana, and this is my wife as of yesterday afternoon, Sakiyo."

"We're both 18, in case you're wondering," Sakiyo said.

"...Wow," Conan said. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Well, we've been dating for about a year or so," Sakiyo said.

"We attended the same elementary and middle school before then," Rei said, "but we didn't really know each other until we got together."

"Um, but if you don't mind me asking," Nancy said, "don't you think eighteen is a little young?"

Rei sighed. "Yeah. That's what everyone's been telling us. And I certainly understand where they're coming from. In this economy, two eighteen year olds just out of high school can't make it on their own, or so that line of reasoning goes."

"But we both have full-time jobs, and we've managed to find an exceptionally cheap place to live," Sakiyo said. "So I think we can make it."

Conan and Nancy looked at each other again. And then they looked back at the newlywed couple.

"Well, we wouldn't want to bother you further," Conan said. "So..."

"Yeah, no problem," Rei said.

"Hey, the two of you should ask your parents if you could maybe have dinner with us later," Sakiyo asked. "We'd look forward to that."

 **Scene Transition**

"So what's your take on them?" Nancy asked.

Conan sighed. "Well, I think they made a hasty decision. Marriage is something that shouldn't be rushed, especially when you're that young. The way they described it, I'm guessing they married right after finishing high school."

Nancy nodded. "Yeah. Well, in any case I wish them the best of luck."

"I doubt it, but yeah, me too. You wanna take them up on their offer?"

"Maybe. Sounds like it'd be fun."

 **Scene Transition**

 _Finally, after having drifted in and out of consciousness several times over the span of however long, he came to his senses. From the preceding semi-conscious episodes he knew immediately that he was lying in some kind of hospital bed._

 _But something seemed...off. This did not look like a professional center of medical care. Rather, this was a makeshift hospital. He was on an old, worn-out bed. A third-world hospital, maybe? But if so, what country?_

 _"S-Surely not..." he mumbled, beginning to grow afraid._

 _He heard unintelligible speech. Shouting. And then, a man stood over him._

 _The man had bronzed skin, smooth, combed black hair, and he was wearing a military uniform._

 _And then Brian realized: he had been captured by the Iraqis._

 _"Are you awake?" the man asked in English._

 _"...Yeah."_

 _"Very good. Looks like you're ready."_

 _"Ready? For what?"_

 _"To sing like a canary, of course."_

 _Three men grabbed him, pulled him out of bed, and dragged him to another room where he was then strapped to a chair._

 _The man in uniform began putting on gloves. There was an arrogant smirk on his face. He clearly took pride in his work, whatever that work entailed._

 _"By your dog tags, we've managed to identify you. So, I guess it wouldn't be fair unless I told you who I was as well."_

 _Brian shook his head. "No need. I already know who you are. Omar Mahmoud al-Jabouri, one of the architects of Saddam Hussein's 'internal security' apparatus. In short, one of the chief officers of his secret police. One of the most feared men in Iraq. You've overseen the forced disappearance of thousands of dissidents and members of ethnic and religious minorities, many of whom were tortured, raped, and murdered. Based on your reputation alone, I know not to expect a shred of mercy from you."_

 _"You know your stuff, it would seem. Yes, progress has always come at a human cost. How many people died in your American Revolution? How many of your martyrs died to establish Christendom in the West?"_

 _"Not the same thing. All the murders committed by your government were committed in the name of consolidating the power of your country's dictator over an unwilling people. That's not progress. Far from it."_

 _"No? We've seized Kuwait. And the rest of the Arab world will follow. We are all brothers in our Arab and Muslim identity, but we've been broken up into artificial statelets by the Western imperial powers. These statelets are jahiliyyah dictatorships. They are not loyal to the Islamic community but only to themselves. And now, the Saudi infidels allow American army bases on the holy soil once walked by the Prophet, peace be upon him. This is an abomination of the highest order. The Crusaders have conspired against our lands and our people for too long: now is our time to expel the infidels from our midst and have our revenge. We will kick you out like the Vietnamese peasant soldiers did, and once that is done and we are all united, we will retake Jerusalem from the Zionist occupiers...and then finish what Hitler started but was unable to finish."_

 _He paused for dramatic effect, to give Brian a second to process all that he was hearing._

 _"So yes. A few dead Kurds and socialists is far too small a price to pay for the glorious victory that awaits our people. Saddam Hussein will become ruler of the first Islamic Caliphate in centuries. And I am proud to have been born into these times, to be able to participate in this great undertaking."_

 _There was a rumble overhead._

 _"And that," he said, looking up, "is the reason you are here. I need to extract some information from you, and time is of the essence. So excuse me for jumping straight into the most effective methods of interrogation. But before that happens, I'll give you one chance to come clean. Is a ground invasion coming?"_

 _"I'm not telling you a d**n thing," Brian said._

 _"Hmm...I figured you'd say that. At first, anyways."_

 _He pulled down Brian's pants, then his underwear, and then grabbed a live electrical wire and jabbed it into his privates._

 **Scene Transition**

There was a small but fancy sit-down restaurant inside the Maison Ikkaku. It had about ten tables in total.

As soon as Conan and Nancy entered, they saw Sakiyo and Rei waving at them. They went and sat down at their table.

"Are your parents coming?" Rei asked.

Conan shook his head. "No, but we have enough money to pay for our own meals."

They looked at the menu.

"Oh, good, they have _chagayu_ ," Nancy said, referring to a rice soup boiled in tea that Nara prefecture was famous for. "I've been itching to try it one day."

"You do realize that's a breakfast food, right?" Conan said.

"So? My stomach has no wind of your strange earthly concept of time."

Rei and Sakiyo laughed.

"So, where are you two from?" Rei asked.

"Tokyo," Conan said.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Sakiyo exclaimed. "I think I've seen you two on the news! You're with that famous detective...what's his name?"

"The Sleeping Kogoro," Rei said. "Is that right?"

Nancy nodded. "We, uh, we live at his house."

"Oh," Rei said. "He had a daughter, right? About our age."

"Yeah," Conan said. "She's..."

"We understand," Sakiyo said. "If you don't want to talk about that-

"Um, no, it's fine," Conan said.

"She was almost like an older sister to you, huh?" Rei said.

Not really knowing how else to respond to that, Conan just nodded.

"And you," Sakiyo said, looking at Nancy, "you never got a chance to meet her, right? You moved in just a little while after her tragic accident."

"But honestly, you kind of look like her," Rei said.

Nancy just chuckled bashfully.

"You two seem to know a lot about the old man," Conan said.

"Well, the truth is-

At that moment, the waitress came to their table.

"Are you all ready to order?" she asked.

They were, they did so, and then the waitress left.

"As I was saying," Rei said, "we're actually both big fans of Sleeping Kogoro. It's how we met."

"Ever since he came onto the scene about a year ago," Sakiyo said, "we've been following all his cases. He had a fan club in our local area, and we met each other there."

I can't believe we're actually having this conversation, Conan thought with a deadpan look.

"We were both students of Hokuei High," Rei said. "I actually had a girlfriend before encountering my future wife at the fan club, but we honestly had nothing in common so we broke up shortly afterwards."

Sakiyo nudged him.

"S-Sorry, I guess there wasn't any point in telling you that," Rei said. "I am curious about something though. You two live with Detective Mouri. So does that mean he's here? Right now?"

"N-No, sorry," Conan said. "There's an investigation right now, and he's very busy with that at the moment."

"Oh?" Sakiyo said. "So did he drop you off here to snoop around and find clues on his behalf?"

"Well, you could say that," Nancy said.

"We've been asking around about a man," Conan said. "He was here nine years ago."

"Oh," Rei said. "Nine year anniversaries aren't very big. So I guess the only people who'd know about that are the employees. Somebody who's been working here for a long, long time."

"Though come to think of it," Sakiyo said, "when I was doing preliminary internet research about this place, I read some articles that mentioned an incident which occurred here nine years ago. A man died. Is that what you're here to investigate?"

"Yeah," Conan said. "From eyewitness accounts and news articles, we've gathered the man, who checked into the hotel under the false name Hinako Kanejima, but whose real name was Nobutaro, had just checked out. A concierge, who has since quit, helped him put his bags in the car, an old model called a Ford Pinto. And then, there was an accident: it's believed that one of the wheels rolled over a large fragment of concrete that was just sitting there. The turbulence caused by this was enough to cause the vehicle to burst into flames. The Ford Pinto was infamous for this, and in the case of that man Nobutaro it proved fatal. He appeared to have been killed or severely injured by the explosion, and in any case was unable to get out of the car. By the time the fire department arrived approximately twelve minutes after the explosion, his body was burnt to a crisp."

"We've gathered that on the morning of the explosion he was seen talking to a man," Nancy said. "A local Catholic priest, who goes by the name Girolamo Romano."

The waitress, who was putting their food down on the table, was intrigued by the turn of this conversation.

"Oh, Reverend Romano, you say?" the waitress repeated.

"You know about him?" Conan asked.

"Yeah, he's the new Bishop over the Diocese of Kyoto," the waitress said. "I'm a Christian, and I've been receiving confession from him ever since I was a kid. He's actually pretty famous around these parts for that: he'll let literally anyone receive confession from him. It's been said that one of the biggest crime bosses in Kyoto goes to him for that reason once a month. He also comes around here too, every now and then. Come to think of it, I think he'll be here tomorrow."

"Oh? What for?" Sakiyo asked.

"He's associated with the Gideons, a society that distributes Bibles at hotels," the waitress said. "He's been coming here once a year for the past two decades to put a copy in every hotel room here, and he also visits every now and then to enjoy our famous breakfast. He's friends with the owner and gets to eat free, and he's also a big hit around here with couples who come barging into his room wanting to confess their infidelities to him. I think everybody enjoys it when he comes. I can't imagine a guy like him having any enemies."

"Yo, Haruhi! Don't forget you got other customers!"

And upon hearing this, the waitress was on her way elsewhere.

 **Scene Transition**

About an hour and a half later, they returned to their room.

"I had a great time," Nancy said. "How about you?"

"Yeah, they were a lot of fun," Conan said. "Knew a lot about the cases I've solved. In any case, tomorrow we'll be sure to ask that priest about his conversation with Nobutaro. Maybe we'll figure out some important detail about him, like where he's from or something."

Nancy went into the bathroom and took a ten-minute shower. As soon as she finished and came out, Conan did likewise, and when he came out Nancy turned off the TV. They went to brush their teeth before going to bed, something for which they were both able to use the bathroom at the same time.

Conan opened up his bag, felt around for the toothbrush, when:

"Hmm? What's this?"

He took a small medicine bottle out. On the bottle was tape, and on the tape was written _Antidote and Apotoxin (Color Coated)_.

"What's that doing in there?" Nancy asked.

Conan shrugged. He put it back, they brushed their teeth, and then turned the light off in the bathroom.

They both lied in their beds and pulled the covers over themselves.

And then, about twenty minutes later, as they were beginning to fall asleep:

*brrrriiing*

Conan reached for his phone in the dark, and then answered:

"Who is this?"

"Are y'all gonna do it or not?" Sonoko asked.

"Yeah, I paid good money for those listening devices," Haibara said.

"Hi, I'm here too," Masumi said.

On the other side of the phone, the three girls were sitting in the living room at the Professor's house gathered around what basically amounted to a baby monitor.

"Huuuuuuhhh?!" Conan exclaimed, getting up out of bed and turning the lights on.

 **Twenty Minutes Later**

"Those perverts," Conan muttered once more, absolutely livid and red in the face.

They had thoroughly searched the whole place for bugs, found one in their suitcases (which Conan subsequently smashed to pieces and flushed down the toilet), but were still unsure over whether that was the only one.

Nancy sighed. "Look, let's just not worry about them. I mean, it's not like something's going to happen between us...right?"

"Y-Yeah..." he replied.

They turned the lights off and went back to bed. And such was the start of a very awkward hour.

The two of them tossed and turned during that time, unable to get a wink of sleep.

And finally:

By the loud creaking sound Conan could tell that Nancy had just gotten out of bed. Then, she climbed into bed alongside him.

"H-Hey," he protested, getting up. He went and flipped the light switch.

"If you don't have the nerve to start this conversation, I will," Nancy said.

Conan's heart skipped a beat. He swallowed.

"It's been months," Nancy said. "Since I came back to life. I confessed my feelings to you at my birthday party, and you did the same to me back in London. The only barrier then was that I didn't know about you shrinking. But now we're on the same footing...we've been for quite a while now. That we're only talking about this now-"

"What's there to say?" Conan retorted. "We're both stuck in child bodies."

"And? We've both got the minds of adults, so I don't see the difference."

Now he was getting flustered. "I'm just saying, we have a lot of time on our hands before we grow up again. I think we should take this slow."

"Slow? How slow exactly?"

He didn't know how to answer.

"We've known each other for years and years," she said. "And we've yet to take the first steps to being in a deeper relationship. Isn't that slow enough? Isn't it time to move just a little bit faster? Or...this isn't about us being kids, is it?"

"Look, I'm really tired, okay?"

Before Nancy could respond he got up and turned the lights back off. He climbed into the bed that she was using earlier and tried to go to sleep, effectively vetoing the conversation, for that night, anyways.

(Author's Note: I'm sorry about how long it took to publish this second chapter, and for it being so short. Suffice to say I've had a really bad mental block that's kept me from being productive in my writing. I only hope that chapters three and four won't take nearly so long to write. In any case, I laud you for your patience, if you've been waiting since the release of chapter 1 for an update to this.)


	3. Chapter 3

**The Next Day**

Conan and Nancy woke up at 8:37. They knew that if Reverend Girolamo Romano was going to come and eat breakfast, they probably didn't have a lot of time if they wanted to get to him before he finished and set about his work.

"Are we going to talk about last night?" Nancy asked upon emerging from the bathroom dressed for the day.

"No," Conan said bluntly. "There's nothing to discuss."

"...Fine then."

And with that, she went out the door.

 **Scene Transition**

As Conan was going down the staircase, he passed by a man and a woman going up, carrying their baggage. They, too, were wearing wedding rings.

Huh, that's odd, Conan thought.

But without giving them any further thought he went downstairs and headed for the room where the establishment served free breakfast to its customers. There was Nancy, having made her plate and sat down.

By the expression on her face, I'd better wait a little while before approaching her, he thought.

By the face that the Reverend's name was European, he knew to look for somebody who appeared foreign. No such person was present here.

He ran out and headed to the front desk:

"Excuse me, miss," he said in his childish voice, "by any chance did an old man come in this morning?"

"The Reverend? Yes. He finished breakfast about ten minutes ago."

"So now he's busy putting Bibles in hotel rooms?"

"Yes, and he's not to be bothered while he's doing it. Those were the manager's clear instructions."

"Okay. Do you know what time he's going to be done?" Conan asked.

"I don't. When he's done he'll probably leave right away, but he'll be back at I think 5 PM to receive confessions in his room."

At five, huh, Conan thought. " _Ne_ , when does our room expire?"

"Let's see, it says here...tomorrow at 1 PM."

It should all work out, he thought. I'll approach him then, ask my questions, and we'll be all set to return home.

 **Scene Transition**

After waking up, Rei and Sakiyo swam in the lake for quite a while, and now were hungry for lunch.

They each grabbed a plate and stood in line to get some barbecued meat.

"Um, excuse me..."

They turned around. Standing before them was a man wearing dirty clothes. He looked like the kind of guy who lived alone, had a minimum wage job, and had poor hygiene. The kind of guy who could've been a plumber, who wore his pants too low and would've exposed his butt cheeks when bending over to do his job.

The man in question was Yasuda.

"Can I help you?" Rei asked.

"Um, yes," Yasuda said. "You two...are you married?"

They just nodded, knowing where this was going.

Or, at least, they thought they did.

And then, he was silent. He stood in place, staring at them intently. Neither of them dared move, though both were clearly uncomfortable.

Finally, Rei turned his head to check out the line. "Um, you don't mind if we, uh, get our food now?"

"...Sure," Yasuda said. "No problem. Thanks for your time, and...I hope you two are happy together."

And with that, Yasuda walked away in the other direction, apparently not hungry.

What are the chances, he thought, that those two people would...?

From the moment he first passed them by last night, he could smell it on them: the clear disconnect. Two people bound at the hip by fate, destined to be together for the rest of their lives. Man and wife, having jointly decided their lives would be better spent in each other's arms than apart. All the while, the lingering odor of hatred, an enmity that transcended generations. He knew he recognized them, the minute he accidentally brushed Rei's shoulder last night: of what little he saw of them before, in a time long gone, the fact that such a dramatic turnaround had unfolded before his eyes was nothing short of a miracle. Did they break the ugly cycle by sheer force of will...or were they still trapped in it?

Or, were the old cycles coming to a close? If so, did this mean that mankind was about to enter into a new spiritual epoch? Clearly, he hadn't done anything yet, so this was something bigger than him. Was the fact of his own birth a part of this, a sign of the times?

He stopped and chuckled. All this time, he thought of himself as as a rebel against the great host of heaven, the cosmic forces that be and that, to his knowledge, had always been. But what if all this time he was really just a pawn that those same forces were using for their own purposes, good or ill? If so, that would be lifting a massive burden off of his back. But whatever relief he might've felt was overridden by anger and disgust, and yet a greater burden still. That undertaking, his great mission in life, should he succeed, would inevitably restore exactly the kind of cycles that this lovely young couple had apparently broken free of in perhaps the first time ever. The cruel and heartless in their high places would be the only winners here.

And he couldn't help but to ask himself:

Should I just give up and die now? Is losing the only way to win?

 **Scene Transition**

Conan fixed his plate, spotted the table where Rei and Sakiyo were seated, and then sat down next to them.

"Hey."

"Hey," he responded. "Have either of you seen Ra-um, Nancy?"

They shook their heads.

And then, another couple sat down. It was the couple from earlier, the ones Conan passed by as he was going down the stairs, the ones who had apparently checked in today.

"You don't mind if we join you?" the man asked.

"No, not at all," Sakiyo said.

And so, they got around the talking.

Their names were Ryoji and Misa Hyakuya. By their appearance, they both appeared to be roughly in their early-to-mid 20s. According to them, they were both college students when they first met each other at an LSAT test prep course during the summer. They hit it off and were married as of about a month ago.

"Hmm?" Conan said with a fake childish naivety. "You two have been married for a month?"

"Y-Yeah," Ryoji said. "What about it?"

"You must both have a sense of humor then," Conan said.

"What are you talking about, kid?" Misa snapped. "Do we look funny to you?"

"But earlier you were both wearing your wedding rings funny," Conan said. "It was slid only about four-fifths down your finger. That's a bad way to wear it if you want it to stay on, right? To think that you'd be married for a whole month and still be wearing it like that...you guys are really funny."

They didn't know how to respond but to chuckle nervously.

"You clearly saw wrong, boy," Ryoji said.

He grabbed the wasabi from the side of the table where a bunch of condiments were lined up. He began topping it onto his barbecued chicken.

Th-That's excessive, Conan thought with a deadpan look.

Then Misa took the bottle, poured a bunch of it onto her own plate, and then put the bottle back in its place.

And so, they talked a little more, during which Conan didn't see either Ryoji or Misa drink their water at all, though they cleared their plates in no time. Then they finished and got up; Conan also then finished, excused himself, and headed back inside.

 **Scene Transition**

He returned to the room. Nancy wasn't here.

He sighed, took out his phone, and called her number.

Thirty seconds later, no reply.

He hadn't seen her in several hours.

Wait, he realized, mortified. Could it be...?!

He dashed out of the room and went over to Room 223.

He started pounding on the door until a few seconds later Yasuda opened it and looked down at the shrunken detective.

"...Is there something you need from me?" Yasuda asked, mildly annoyed.

"Let me in. Now."

Yasuda shrugged, stepped aside, and let him in.

 **Scene Transition**

 _Brian had stopped groaning long ago; there was simply not enough strength left in his body to waste on vain utterances._

 _He didn't know how long it'd been; days? Weeks? Months? A long time ago, they asked him a question. Since then, he'd forgotten what it was. At this point, he didn't even know why they were inflicting pain on him. All he knew was that he had to endure it. Then again, he didn't even know what the alternative to endurance might be, save death. Well, it didn't matter: he had no means with which to kill himself. He tried refusing to eat, but they simply force-fed him to keep him alive for their purposes. His only hope was that eventually his body would give out and that his soul would pass on to whatever lied beyond the boundary of death._

 _On that day in January, he'd taken his craft on a mission deep inside Iraqi-held territory. He had been in good shape, good health then. But now? Now he was a shriveled husk of a man, his face sunken in, his eyes staring out a thousand yards ahead, even though the wall was only a few feet away. His torturers were intrigued; what was he staring at? What was he thinking about? The man they were trying to extract information from had slowly but surely retreated into the inner recesses of his mind._

 _In fact, it was now February 21, 1991. By this time it was common knowledge among the battered and profusely demoralized Iraqi troops that a full-out ground offensive was soon to come. As a man who'd been out of the loop for over a month, whatever information they could extract from him was of dubious value at best. Why they were still torturing him was anyone's best guess. The prevailing theory was that it was cathartic; they couldn't beat the Americans in the air, so they could beat this American in their custody to a bloody pulp. With each sharp kick they got to feel like they were winning, for one measly second._

 _Once more, the metal door made a creaking noise as it was opened. It hadn't taken Brian long to dread that sound; he knew it meant the start of yet another agonizing day. But by now, his mental reaction to the creaking door had decreased; he was starting not to care. Or more accurately, his mental condition had deteriorated to the point where he was increasingly unable to care._

 _They grabbed him. By now his captors had figured out that he was scarce able to stand, so they knew to lift him up and drag him to where they intended him to be._

 _Today, however, something was different. They didn't take him to the normal place. Instead, they forced him on his knees. He had to rest his palms against the ground to keep his balance, and even this he did with some difficulty._

 _Lt. General al-Jabouri stood before him. Brian could see that somehow, his Iraqi adversary was also exhausted._

 _"...I must commend you," al-Jabouri said. "For what it's worth, you've earned my respect. But you see, we're just about out of time. It's clear you have nothing to offer us, in terms of information. Nothing to extract from that head of yours. Whatmore, we simply cannot afford for the world to find out how you've been treated. We've violated the terms of the Geneva Convention, concerning the treatment of prisoners of war. And quite frankly, news of this could incite the American people to outrage, and lead to Abrams tanks rolling into Baghdad."  
_

 _"...So what?" Brian managed. "Now you're just going to kill me?"_

 _al-Jabouri nodded. "I'm going to shoot you now, and we'll bury you in an unmarked grave. Your country will just presume that you went missing in action."_

 _So this is how it ends, Brian thought. I'm going to die a dog's death...nobody will know where to find my body. This is my just punishment, for violating protocol, disobeying orders...my life really amounted to nothing, in the end._

 _He looked up._

 _But this man, he thought, this evil man...if I can just kill him, then maybe, just maybe, I'll have done something of real meaning, something to make me deserving of the life I've been given. Maybe this is it, the reason why I was born. To see justice carried out in this godforsaken corner of the world. So that mourning widows and mothers robbed of their loved ones by this man can find some small bit of solace. Am I...am I really going to do this? It's going to take every last bit of strength left in this body. Well, here goes nothing._

 _"YAAAAAAAAAHHH!"_

 _He did a fantastic leap into the air. As his body was off the ground, he maneuvered his arms behind him, so they went under his legs and forthright. Before anybody could react he grabbed the gun from al-Jabouri's holster, pointed it at his face, and pulled the trigger._

 _But as fate would have it, the safety was on. Nothing happened._

 **Scene Transition**

Conan began to sweep the room, searching the bathtub, the cabinet under the sink, and under the bed. He quickly spotted a suitcase, and began to pull it out from under there.

"H-Hey," Yasuda protested weakly.

Because of the lock on it, Conan couldn't open the suitcase.

"What's in here?" he demanded.

"Just stuff," Yasuda said. "Nothing that concerns you."

Conan shook it.

Well, it doesn't feel like there's a person in here, he thought. I guess I'll just have to let it be.

He slid the suitcase back underneath the bed and looked up at Yasuda.

"Do you know where Nancy is?"

"No. I haven't seen her today."

"You absolutely sure about that?"

Yasuda nodded. "I'm not lying, okay? Whatever you think of me, I haven't done squat to your friend. Of what I know about this place, there's a good chance she's out in the woods somewhere. They've got a pretty large hiking trail here. And while in there one might feel the urge to go off the trail and explore. I mean, I dunno. That's just one possibility."

Conan sighed and headed for the door.

"I hope you find her," Yasuda said as Conan was leaving.

 **Scene Transition**

Conan looked at his phone; the time was now 1:42 PM. In a little over three hours' time he was scheduled to ask the Reverend about the occurrence of nine years ago.

He headed up to the entrance to the hiking trail. Apparently there were two separate paths.

Once more he tried calling Nancy. Once again, no response.

There was a man just past the entrance with a hammer and some nails who was inspecting the small wooden bridge that laid suspended above a stream. Conan went up to the man.

"Excuse me," he said, "have you by any chance seen a girl here earlier? She's about my age."

The man shook his head. "I just got here like five minutes ago."

"Um, okay. Thank y-

"Wait wait wait, don't go over the bridge just yet," the man said. "I just unloosened some nails. Gimme another twenty minutes or so."

"Then how am I supposed to get across?"

"Well, I suppose you can go under, if you don't mind getting a tiny bit wet."

Conan nodded and begun to do so when:

"Hold on. I hear you've been asking about the reverend?"

"Um, yeah? Do you know something I don't?"

"Well, there was an incident that happened here some time back. Before you were born."

"The car accident?"

"No, this was before then. About twenty four years back, I think. There was a man, a drug addict. A dealer too if I'm not mistaken. His name was Eto Mine. I vaguely knew him, went to high school with him. Anyways, he came storming in the hotel with a gun and held some people hostage. One of them was a pregnant woman. They say after about ten hours the police became impatient and raided the building to resolve the crisis. He panicked, shot the woman, and then, upon realizing what he had done, he shot himself too. They both died. They say every year the Reverend gets together with that woman's relatives and loved ones and holds a vigil for her. He wasn't here when it was going down, but at the time he had just moved to this country from Italy and was starting out as a priest in this general area. I'm friends with one of her cousins, which is how I know this. That man, the Reverend, he...he's such an incredible figure. He's a pillar of this community, and his congregation in Kyoto, well, they all respect him. So I don't know what your business with the Reverend is, but I hope you're not thinking ill of him, cause he doesn't deserve that."

Conan smiled. "No sir. I just want to ask him a few questions. That's all."

 **Scene Transition**

Finally, after walking for some time, Conan saw her from a distance, sitting on a stone bench overlooking a steep incline leading down to a point where the stream was considerably wider.

He ran up until he reached her, panting.

"You've been here for the past few hours?" he asked.

"What do you want?"

"Huh?"

"I like it out here," Nancy said, "and I'm not ready to go back with you yet."

He started to protest, but then he stopped himself. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"Why would I be mad?" she said evasively, her face red.

Instead of answering, he just turned around and headed back.

 **Scene Transition**

 **5:12 PM**

Conan opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

He walked past the bathroom and then saw a confession booth set up, the two beds having been cleared out of the room ahead of time.

He brushed past the curtain and went inside the booth and sat down on the wooden stool, situated right next to the small slit that connected the two chambers of the booth. Presumably, the Reverend was on the other side, waiting to hear confession from whoever cared to spill their guts out before this holy man.

He knew it'd sound really weird if a kid started saying all this, so he turned the dial on his voice-changing bowtie to his adult voice, that of Shinichi Kudo.

"...To be honest, I've never done confession before," he said. "I guess I could call myself nominally Shintoist, like just about everybody else in this country. But you don't mind, I take it?"

No answer.

"By this point, I think I've probably got a lot to confess," he continued. "But that's not why I'm here. There's something that's been weighing down on me hard, for the past few months but especially in the past three hours. There's something else I need to ask you about too, but I really have to get this off my chest first. Beforehand, I must thank you for giving me this time, and I hope this won't be too much of a bother. I didn't see anybody else lined up outside, so it looks like I can afford to just say what I came here to say."

No answer.

"You see, there's this girl. We've been friends since we were kids. Now we're both grown, and, as it would turn out we both...like each other. A lot. I think I can honestly say we'd both like to take things to the next level, of being proper boyfriend and girlfriend. But...well, I don't know quite how to say this...Um, to put it one way, a while back there were circumstances where I really thought I lost her forever. And...I don't like the person who I was during that time. It was the darkest time in my whole life, bar nothing. Looking back I can hardly even recognize that person. I lost control of myself, and...if love does that, I'm not sure that I want to be in love. We've had a good thing going for so long, being friends, and I think I'm willing to be satisfied with just that. It was such a wonderful thing that we've enjoyed together. But I don't think that she is. I don't want to lose her, and I mean I really, really don't want to lose her, but it's starting to look like if I won't let us take the next step then she's going to just break things off. I know this isn't the kind of drama that you came here to listen to me babble on about, but if you could give me some ad-

Conan could hear a door opening. He peeked out and saw that the Reverend had just now entered the room.

So I've been talking to myself this whole time, he thought with a deadpan look.

"I'm sorry," the Reverend said. "Got here a little late. There was some business at the church that took longer than I thought. Can I help you?"

Conan sighed. "Yeah. There's something I've been meaning to ask you about. It concerns a man who you were seen talking with nine y-

Somebody knocked on the door.

The reverend walked across the room and opened it. Standing there was Ryoji Hyakuya.

"You're the Reverend I keep hearing about?" he asked.

"I am."

"Would you mind if I took a few minutes of your time to talk about something?"

He looked at Conan, and then added:

"Alone?"

The Reverend nodded. "That's fine with me."

Figuring he could try again later (the Reverend was scheduled to remain in his booth until 7:00), Conan left the room.

 **Scene Transition**

He returned to the entrance of the hiking trail:

Just in time to see Nancy crossing over the wooden bridge and heading towards him.

"...You're good now?" Conan asked.

She nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Yeah. I think I am. You talked to the Reverend?"

"No, not yet. I'm gonna go see if he's free now. You coming?"

"Yeah."

 **Scene Transition**

They opened the door and entered the room.

"Reverend?" Conan asked. "Are you here?"

No answer.

Upon looking inside they found he wasn't in the confession booth. The bathroom door was cracked open.

Nancy shrugged. "I guess he left."

That's strange, Conan thought. It's only 5:45 now. He shouldn't have left yet.

He looked at Nancy, and in that moment he knew what he needed to do. It was a matter that desperately needed taking care of, something more important than scrounging for bits and pieces of intel on long dead men.

He yawned and stretched his arms. "You know what? It doesn't matter. As far as we know Nobutaro and the Reverend could've been talking about the weather, or Italian stuff, or politics. Let's just go back to the room."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I don't think there's anything left here that's of use to our investigation. Let's just call it quits and enjoy the rest of our stay here."

 **Scene Transition**

Having showered and gotten into their pajamas, they had turned on the TV and were combing over to TV Guide to find something to watch when:

"Oh snap, look at that!" Nancy said. "Look at that!"

"We haven't seen that movie in years!" Conan said. "Hey, I'll bet you we still know all the lines by heart."

"Says it starts in about 25 minutes," Nancy said. "You wanna do it?"

"Heck yeah. I'll go downstairs and buy us a bag of popcorn to share."

 **Two Hours Later**

"She calls to me. In my dreams. To be with her, in her infinite embrace."

"Beyond these walls there is only darkness. And death."

"And majesty. And beauty unlike anything I've ever experienced. My whole life I have breathed the same recycled air. I can only see because of artificial light, and the only thing to look at is this artificial, barren environment. And the Archons have the audacity to call this living?"

"It is not your place to question the Archons, Subject D-44."

"No. That's not my name."

"If you cross beyond this point you will surely die. Is that what you want?"

"But at least, for a brief moment, I'll finally understand what it is to be alive. That's my choice to make, and you have no right to deny me this. It IS my destiny, plain and simple!"

"If you will not listen to reason then I must kill you now. So long, Subject D-44."

Having recited all/most the lines in the movie accurately up until this point, Conan and Nancy now arrived at that pivotal scene with the final showdown.

"You can shoot me if you want," Conan and the character onscreen he was mimicking said. "One way or another all you'll be doing is setting me free from this squalid cage, this slaughterhouse. But you'll still be trapped in it, and you'll spend the rest of your life in misery, in fear, dreading the day when your time comes. Or you can join me. Join me, and together we can look beauty square in the face...and be raptured into it."

Just like the man on the screen, Nancy's facial expression changed to mental anguish. She put her finger pistol to her head and yanked back her second finger as though to "fire". The man on screen fell down dead, and Nancy got down on the ground as though she were dead.

Conan then walked past her, and pretended to open a hatch.

Onscreen, the man found that what awaited him outside was not the depths of space as he thought but rather the tattered remnants of the planet earth. He stepped outside, took a good look around him, and fell to his knees. According, Conan also fell to his knees.

"You MANIACS!" both Conan and the man on screen exclaimed. "You BLEW it up!"

*end of movie*

Nancy stood up. They faced each other.

"...That was amazing," Conan said.

"I know, right?" Nancy said, giddy. "I can't believe we remembered the entire thing. The last time we watched it together was something like six years ago, right?"

"Yeah," Conan said, "but by that time we must've seen this movie like two dozen times."

"I remember that one time your mom scolded us for repeating the curse words in the movie dialogue," Nancy said. "Ahh, those were the days."

"Who says those days are over?" Conan said, with a warm smile. "You know, there's one thing we never did back then."

"Huh?"

"We'd sit on opposite sides of the couch," Conan said. "We had some pretty bad posture, you have to admit. Was probably terrible for our backs. But it never occurred to us then-

And then, suddenly, he wrapped his arm around Nancy/Ran. He sat down on the bed, and she did likewise, blushing, thinking 'Is this really happening?'.

"That movies are perfect for huddling close together, next to the person you care about the most."

She learned her head against him, and they sat there, content to be in this rare, nay, unprecedented moment.

...And this is what it is to love, Conan thought. No: rather, I'm just acting outwardly on how I've always felt. In the years I've had to reflect on these emotions I've never determined them to be wrong. What I was afraid of was how I found myself acting because of it, but...I was grieving then. Was that really the worst way to for a guy to react to his best friend being murdered? And what guarantee is there that I'll ever be like that when she's alive? I mean, I'm not crazy now, right? I don't think I am, anyways. Even if that's how I would react were I to lose her again, that's not going to be for a long time, right? Assuming that I shouldn't pass on before her. Does the fact that I'm going to have to lose it all in the end warrant never having at all?

No, no it doesn't, he thought. To do so would be letting fear dictate the terms of my life. It's going to really be awful then, I know, but if that's the primary drawback, it's still a good deal to make overall.

Meanwhile, Nancy/Ran was also deep in thought:

This is a lot to take in, she thought. Or is it? Has anything really changed? We're being more affectionate now than usual, but...that doesn't invalidate all the time we've enjoyed together. Our relationship has played itself out every day in the mundane, the ordinary. This is nice, and I wouldn't trade this moment for anything in the world, but we don't require experiencing this everyday for our connection to be real. Love can't be put into a box. It can take a multitude of forms...Shinichi was right. We don't need to be 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' just yet. We don't need to make a show of anything, or to have a constant pressure on our backs telling us how far we need to take things. There's no reason why we can't just be ourselves, enjoy the moment. It's going to be a long ten years, but long doesn't mean bad.

 ***BLAM***

They both stood up.

"What was that?" Conan said.

"I think it came from outside," Nancy said.

They went down to the lobby, where several people were murmuring in confusion about the sound, which sounded distinctly like a gunshot.

They ran outside, overlooking the lake, which was roughly the direction in which they'd heard it.

"Over there!" Nancy said, pointing to that vague outline of a boat on the lake.

Conan checked out his phone. "It's 8:35 now. The lake's closed for swimmers and canoes at 8. So why...It couldn't be!"

He handed Nancy his phone and ran down the slope towards the lake. He waded into the waters, and then found himself neck-deep in it. He swam towards the small wooden boat.

He reached the boat and climbed in. What he found was:

The Reverend's body sat limply in the boat, a gunshot wound through his temple.


	4. Chapter 4

_Another fantastic morning, another breakfast meal._

 _Girolamo Romano put some scrambled eggs, fried cheese grits, and an English muffin on his plate. He looked around: every place was taken. It was unusually busy today, apparently._

 _He saw one older gentleman who was seated by himself._

 _"You don't mind if I join you?" he asked, though he had already put his plate down on the small table._

 _"Be my guest."_

 _"So, what brings you here?" Romano asked._

 _"Destiny."_

 _"I'm sorry? What was that?"_

 _"What brings you here?"_

 _"Well, um, I came to pass out some Bibles, and to have breakfast."_

 _"No. I meant: what brings you here? What makes you get up in the morning, leave your house, and conduct your daily business? Most people would say 'Because I need money to live', but I can tell you're a man on a mission. What makes you tick?"_

 _"I am a priest. I have duties towards my congregation, and towards the lost."_

 _"Duty? No, that's not it. Duties aren't usually forced on people against their will. They accept duties. Why did you?"_

 _"To advance the best interests of man, by addressing his spiritual needs."_

 _"So you're a humanitarian worker, basically."_

 _"I guess you could say that."_

 _"How far are you willing to go, to address those needs?"_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"What will you do, as a good shepherd, to ensure that your flock is well-fed, their consciences clear? How far will you go?"_

 _Romano sighed. But then he answered firmly:_

 _"I have devoted every day of my adult life to listening to confessions, praying for the lost, the damned, those who languish in the bowels of purgatory. Their suffering is my own. Their guilt and shame is my own. I suffer daily. My heart breaks daily. This breakfast is one of the few things in this world that I enjoy, because it is really, really good."_

 _"Amen to that."_

 _"...How about you? What is your mission?"_

 _"Our mission is the same."_

 _"Oh?"_

 _"I want to free our kind from its mortal sin."_

 _"And what is that?"_

 _"Ignorance. We cannot get into Heaven because we are too ignorant to even realize that it exists, much less how to get there."_

 _"I beg to differ."_

 _"That you would."_

 _"And what you want...is to enlighten the human race?" Romano asked._

 _"Yes, but merely telling them won't do the trick. I have to show them. I have to show them all. I have to show the world. Or, rather...I have to make them remember."_

 _In that moment, Romano was getting some really weird vibes from this guy, and it was making him uncomfortable. "Well, um, a table has just left, so I'll just sit over there and not bother you."_

 _"It's no bother at all. This is my last day on earth, after all."_

 _And if the things this man, Nobutaro, said earlier didn't make Romano extremely uncomfortable, the above comment did the trick just fine. He went and emptied his plate without eating a dang thing and then headed upstairs._

 _A few minutes later, the deadly car incident happened._

 **Scene Transition**

The Reverend, age 67, was marked by the police as having been discovered dead on a small wooden boat in the middle of the lake beside Maison Ikkaku by a Conan Edogawa at approximately 8:35 PM. There was a gunshot wound through the Reverend's temple, and a gun in his right hand.

The police's initial and prevailing theory was that this was a suicide. They found no note on the boat, on his person, or in the hotel room that he used to receive confessions, but it was understood by the police that most suicidal people did not leave a note.

Inspector Tsuyoshi Shikatsuno, a burly man with a massive space between his nose and his mouth and with a very odd-looking mustache, was the officer put in charge of this case.

The police, as they conducted their search, were quick to note and mark down as evidence the four sets of footprints that they found on-scene: One from an adult, and three from children (one from Conan as he entered the lake, another as he was leaving it, and one continuous trail of Nancy approaching the lake and then turning around and walking away). The footprints left by the adult, which were shown entering the lake, were photographed. Then the Reverend's shoes were removed, and they were used to make another set of prints, which was photographed and then the two were compared. Via this method they were able to confirm that the Reverend himself had walked into the lake, got into a canoe, and taken it out towards the middle of the lake, where he then proceeded to shoot himself in the head. How the Reverend obtained the gun in the first place was a mystery; however, the police did not discount the possibility that he was able to purchase it on the black market. If so, then it was clear that he had this planned for quite some time. The fact that an additional set of adult prints (that of a person leaving the lake) was not found was cited as further evidence that the Reverend had not been murdered.

Just to make sure, however, Inspector Shikatsuno ordered his men to collect alibis from all the hotel guests and staff. The man who Conan had been talking to earlier about the Reverend, who as it turned out was the groundkeeper, drove up and arrived on scene a few minutes after the body was discovered, having been called by the receptionist on staff about the situation that was now transpiring. The police determined that he did not have an alibi, since he had left the hotel about thirty minutes prior to the shooting; they determined it was possible that he could've pulled over somewhere near the Maison Ikkaku and doubled around back in order to commit a murder. However, a quick phone call from his wife, who could account for his whereabouts at the time of the gunshot, was enough to promptly clear him.

Another "person of interest" was the man caught by a security camera right next to a side entrance digging through the trash, Yasuda. However, the security camera that caught him doing this also verified that he could not have murdered the Reverend, since he too had an alibi.

Rei and Sakiyo. They were not in their rooms or inside the hotel at the time of the murder. Apparently, both were outside at the time. Their response to the shooting was to immediately head inside and ask about the sound. They arrived inside a few seconds after Conan entered the waters of the lake. In short:

"If anyone did it, it's the two of them," Inspector Shikatsuno said.

"Unbelievable," the groundskeeper muttered. "That a man like him would...There's no way."

"Hmm?" Conan, who was standing right next to him, said. "Excuse me, sir, you don't think this to be a suicide?"

The groundskeeper shook his head. "He was a Catholic priest, right? The kind of guy who would take his religion very seriously. They view suicide to be a mortal sin, a sin that can threaten one's eternal salvation. I just can't see him of all people doing it."

Meanwhile:

"Why do you always seem to be doing that?" Nancy asked, suspicious.

"Huh?" Yasuda said.

"Why the heck were you digging through the garbage?!" Nancy demanded. "Do you know how unsanitary that is?"

"Eh. I saw somebody throwing something away. I thought Ayumi-chan would like to have it, so I went and took it. Not like anybody was gonna want it back."

"Show me."

Yasuda proceeded to show her an opened bottle of what looked like very expensive shampoo.

"There's still enough in there for maybe one or two more washes," Yasuda said. "Especially if we're talking about the smaller head of a child. But it's really viscuous. That is to say, hard to get out of the bottle in sufficient quantities. I guess that's why they threw it out. I figured you can get around that by turning the bottle upside down and leaving it like that for a while. But not everybody does that, so...The bottle was at the bottom of the trash. Nothing else was in there, so I guess that means it was a new bag, which would make this bottle clean, more or less. "

"Oh," Nancy said. "That was, um, very thoughtful of you, then. I've been to her house before and she only uses market value brands. I think she'll get a kick out of this."

Yup, and with that I'll be banned from this establishment for life, he thought with a deadpan look.

"INSPECTOR!"

An officer ran up to Inspector Shikatsuno. "Forensics has confirmed by the powder marks that the gun was fired from the victim's hand."

"Hmm," the Inspector said. "Good work. I guess technically it's still possible that he was murdered. Under such a scenario, there was perhaps a struggle in the boat; the killer would've put the gun in the Reverend's hand, forced it up to his head, and forced his finger to press down on the trigger. But...that's pretty improbable. You know what? We're just gonna chalk this up to a-

"Ah-le-le?"

And of course, a certain little boy had intruded onto the scene of the investigation. He was now taking a close look at the evidence bag that cased the gun used to kill the Reverend.

"This kind of gun is a pistol, isn't it?" Conan said.

"HEY!" the Inspector barked, his blood pressure rising.

"I'm sorry, Inspector. I'll get him out of here as soon as-

"But this gun is a pistol, right?" Conan repeated.

The Inspector sighed. "Yeah. What about it?"

"I heard about pistols from Uncle," Conan said. "You have to pull back on the hammer right here, right? Then you get to shoot once, and then you have to pull on it again."

"Hmm, that is strange," the Inspector said. "Most pistols nowadays are semiautomatic. But yeah, that one looks like it's single shot. I guess that was the best he could get his hands on?"

There was a pause.

"A-Anyways, you shouldn't be here, kid," he said, trying to be a little more gentle this time.

" _Gomenasai_."

And with that, Conan ran back behind the yellow crime scene tape.

"Oi," Nancy whispered to him, "you think this was a murder, don't you?"

"Yeah," he answered seriously. "And I think I know how the culprit pulled it off, as well as who that culprit is."

 **Scene Transition**

 _"YAAAAAAAAAHHH!"_

 _Brian did a fantastic leap into the air. As his body was off the ground, he maneuvered his arms behind him, so they went under his legs and forthright. Before anybody could react he grabbed the gun from al-Jabouri's holster, pointed it at his face, and pulled the trigger._

 _But as fate would have it, the safety was on. Nothing happened._

 _And then, the gun was snatched from his hand and his head met the butt of a rifle in a highly unpleasant encounter that knocked him to the floor._

 _"...That was it?" al-Jabouri asked. "That was your big plan? I mean, granted, I am_ _really, really impressed, that you managed all that in those few seconds. But still: what did you hope to accomplish? To kill me? What good would that've done you?"_

 _He paused, and then realized: "Or maybe, you just wanted to take me down with you, knowing there was nothing you could do to save your own life. All right, I'll bite. You want at me? I'll give you one last chance."_

 _"Sir, I must object!" one of his men blurted out._

 _"Objection noted and disregarded," al-Jabouri said. "I think by now it's pretty clear that this man has earned a second chance at revenge. Quite frankly, it would be outright dishonorable of us not to grant this one thing to him, and Allah hates the dishonorable, as you should all already know...Everybody out."_

 _And so, they all left, leaving al-Jabouri alone with Brian._

 _"You see this?" al-Jabouri said, referring to the gun that he had tucked back in his belt. "It's fully loaded. If you can overpower me in a fight to the death, and take this from me, you can kill me with it. Of course, in your condition I highly doubt you're capable of such a feat."_

 _Brian looked at the gun, and realized the opportunity presented to him now. He knew this wouldn't be easy, but it was better than nothing._

 _"On your feet," al-Jabouri ordered._

 _Brian slowly rose, and al-Jabouri took two steps back._

 _"No matter how this turns out," al-Jabouri said, "you shall have my eternal respect, no, my love even. But at least try to put up a good fight. It's no fun to kill a man quickly."_

 _Brian hesitated. He knew that he had to act soon; if he did not take some initiative, his adversary would take it for him, and gain the upper hand decisively. Also, he was more or less standing only because of adrenaline. That was to say, he was "running on fumes". If he calmed down just a little bit, he might collapse again. Standing as it was proved immensely painful. He just wanted to be able to sit back down again, but he didn't dare do so._

 _He found a compromise of sorts:_

 _He leapt downwards and slid towards al-Jabouri's leg. Then he grabbed it, used all of his body strength to pivot and knock the man off his feet, then tried to grab his gun._

 _Al-Jabouri stopped him and they began wrestling on the ground. Within a few seconds the Iraqi man had gained the upper hand, pressing down on Brian's shoulders very painfully._

 _Brian used his two fingers to jab al-Jabouri in the eyes. The Iraqi man roared in pain and Brian managed to grab his gun. However, al-Jabouri quickly regained his senses and began to wrestle with him for control of the gun. Brian struggled to hold onto it and to turn the safety off._

 _Al-Jabouri was able to pry several of Brian's fingers off of the gun and regain possession over it._

 _But then, Brian succeeded in turning the safety off, and in pulling down on the trigger:_

 _*BOOM*_

 _The handgun was semiautomatic, and it discharged one shot into al-Jabouri's chest, just barely missing his heart. But the shock of impact gave Brian the window needed to aim at the Iraqi man's head and fire again:_

 _*BOOM*_

 _With some of his enemy's blood having splattered on his own face, Brian could see Iraqi soldiers running towards him._

 _With the last bit of strength left in him, he pointed the gun to his own head and fired._

 _About a decade later, Brian and al-Jabouri would both be reincarnated. The former became a girl named Sakiyo, the latter a boy named Rei. Once again fate would tie them together by a red thread. But this time, they would not come together under the banner of mutual hatred for one another._

 _Just the opposite._

 **Scene Transition**

"Alright!" the Inspector announced. "Men, this looks just like a suicide. Let's get out of here."

Crap, Conan thought. I wish I had more time, but it looks like I'm just gonna have to go with it with the evidence I've got.

He ran to his room and found the spare phone belonging to his Shinichi persona. He used it to call his Conan phone, answered, and then put the former in his pocket.

He ran downstairs and outside.

"WHAT?" he said loudly. "Shinichi-neechan you want to talk to the Inspector?"

"Huh?" the Inspector said.

"It's for you," Conan said, handing the Inspector his phone.

He then ran out of sight and pulled out Shinichi's phone, also prepping his bowtie for immediate use.

"Inspector, I'm glad I got a hold of you before you left."

"That voice, and name...you're the High School Detective, Shinichi Kudo."

"In the flesh. Anyway, please put me on speaker phone."

Inspector Shikatsuno did so.

"This was a murder, not a suicide," Conan/Shinichi said. "I can prove it, I think."

"You think?"

"Well, the evidence is a little sketchy. But I'm hoping it should prove enough. First of all, I'd like to call up Conan-kun as a witness."

Witness, huh? the Inspector thought with a deadpan look. What is this, a freaking lawyer soap opera?

"Call for Conan-kun and ask him what he saw."

The Inspector sighed, and then blurted out "Hey, Conan!"

" _Haaaaaaaaaiiii_!" Conan answered, a little too eagerly, running out from behind somewhere.

"What did you see?"

"Let's see...At about 5:15 I was in the room where the Reverend was receiving confessions when a man walked in and asked to talk to the Reverend alone. It was then that I left."

"Oh? Can you identify this man for us?"

Conan nodded. "It was him."

He pointed to Ryoji Hyakuya, who was watching the crime scene with a nervous expression on his face.

Realizing that Conan was singling him out, he came running angrily.

" _Oi_ , brat, just what are you accusing me of?!" he demanded.

"Is it true that you were seen speaking to the Reverend by this boy?" the Inspector asked.

"Y-Yeah?" he said. "What about it? That doesn't mean I killed him. I just came to talk to him about some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"W-Well, it's kind of personal, and embarrassing..."

"I see."

The Inspector turned to Conan. "Thank you for your testimony, but I don't think that-

"This man and his wife struck me odd when I first encountered them earlier in the day," Conan said. "I passed by them twice before: Once going down the stairs and another time while eating lunch. In the first encounter, they were wearing their rings funny. The second time, they both packed wasabi onto their food and ate it without having to drink water."

"M-Maybe the wife had a very quirky way of cooking, and they'd both been married long enough to be used to it?" the Inspector suggested.

"Oh?" Conan said. "But according to them, they've only been married for a month."

"What is this?!" Misa Hyakuya demanded, storming onto the scene. "What is your business with my husband?"

Conan ran back to his hiding place and took out his phone and bowtie again.

"The two of you aren't really married, are you?" Conan/Shinichi asked. "Rather...you're brother and sister, no?"

There was a stunned silence.

"The wasabi can be explained as a product of your upbringing," he continued. "You were both raised by your father, who used wasabi extensively in his cooking. He was probably a pretty terrible cook, but he had to step into that role after his wife, and your mother, died. Yes, that's right: the woman who died here twenty four years ago was your mother, wasn't she? She had a daughter who was about two years old, who was staying with a babysitter at the time. Likewise, she was very visibly pregnant at the time, and as she was dying the doctors raced to deliver her baby prematurely. It made the national news at the time; that child, a healthy baby was, was dubbed a 'miracle baby'. The two of you look about old enough to be the girl and boy in question. Anyways, for whatever reason you must've borne a strong grudge against the Reverend. So when you found out that he was going to be here on this day, you conspired to come here, posing as husband and wife, to kill him."

"This is just idle speculation!" Ryoji barked. "We both have a clear alibi for the time of the murder!"

"Oh yes, that," Conan/Shinichi continued. "The room where he was conducting confession was on the first floor. Conan and the girl he was with, Nancy, returned to that room at about 5:45. At that time, the Reverend was not there anymore, though he should've been according to his schedule. Or, at least, that's what they thought. In truth, the Reverend was probably drugged with something strong enough to knock him out for several hours and then left in the bathtub in something resembling a fetal position, in the side of the tub nearest to the door that was covered by the shower curtain. Then, all they had to do was wait a little while, until it became a little darker and all the guests and staff began heading inside. What happened then was simple: they had prepared a canoe ahead of time. When it was the right time, one of them, probably Ryoji because one can reasonably expect that he was stronger, switched into the Reverend's shoes and carried his body outside via the window and into the canoe. As proof of this, the footprints left behind, those formerly attributed to the Reverend, are unnaturally deep for a man of the Reverend's build. You can ask forensics and I'm confident they should be able to verify it for you."

"They took the canoe out to the middle of the lake," Conan/Shinichi continued, "put the Reverend's shoes back on his feet, and then set up their trick. A timing mechanism that would kill the Reverend at a later time, after they could return to their room and thus provide themselves with an alibi."

"Trick?" the Inspector repeated.

"Yes. They tied a piece of string, fishing wire that is, to the hammer. Or, more specifically, they looped it through the small round hole in the hammer. The string was then connected to a bobber. Below the bobber, under the water, was a hook. On the hook was a worm, or some similar type of bait. They must've tested this method a dozen times beforehand to ensure that it all would work as planned. It worked like this: when it became dark, and people stopped swimming in the lake, the fish would become more active, and thus, more willing to take the bait on the hook. Once that happened, they pulled it downwards, and along with it, the bobber, which in turn pulled on the string connected to the hammer. The end result of this was that the hammer would be pulled back. Finally, the string would reach a point where it would snap off, causing the hammer to bound back. In this case, it would cause the hammer to strike the primer, discharging the gun."

"Hold on," the Inspector said. "That wouldn't work, because-

"I know what you're about to say," Conan/Shinichi said. "The gun would not fire in such circumstances, but rather it would just be cocked, right? There is a way around this, of course: make the victim's finger so that it was continually pressing down on the trigger. If the gun was not cocked ahead of time, this would not cause it to fire prematurely. The gun was positioned in the Reverend's hand so that, when it went off, the bullet would pierce his skull and kill him instantly, appearing exactly like a suicide. There were a few things that gave it away: first, the Reverend's eyes were closed when his body was discovered by Conan-kun. This could be explained by him choosing to close his eyes before firing, but it does add to the case a tiny bit. More conclusively, however, was the way that his body was slumped in the boat. Rather than him sitting up straight in the boat, shooting himself, and then his body falling over, the position that his body was in seemed more as though he was very nearly lying down at the time that he was shot. All of this suggests that he was not conscious at the time."

"After setting up the trick, they sought to return inside and provide themselves with an alibi," he continued. "However, there were several obstacles they had to get past. First, they had to get out of the water and swim to shore. Of course, they would soaking wet after this. Second, they had to walk backwards, stepping in the footprints they made just a little while prior while wearing the Reverend's shoes, so as to not leave a second set of prints. Once they left the area surrounding the lake, they were free to walk however they wished, but if they were to just go inside then and there somebody might notice that their clothes were wet, and that they were barefoot. That would appear suspicious to the witnesses in hindsight, whenever the police arrived and started investigating. To prevent this, they had a change of clothes prepared beforehand. They changed and dumped the wet clothes somewhere, perhaps in the woods. Then they went inside and, well, the rest is history."

"Not in the woods," Yasuda said.

"Huh? You again?" the Inspector said.

"Listening to you now, there's something I didn't think to mention earlier," Yasuda said. "When I was digging through the trash I found a little plastic bag with some wet clothes in there."

The Inspector turned to a nearby officer, who nodded and went to check the trash.

"If the clothes does belong to Mr. Hyakuya, we should know soon enough," Shinichi said. "DNA tests don't lie, after all. If I'm wrong, and if it should turn out that somebody else was the culprit, we'll know who that person was, though I doubt it was anyone other than him."

About a minute later, the police officer returned holding the dripping plastic bag with clothes in it.

"For more damning evidence, you should probably check the security camera footage for the Reverend's room in between 5:15 and 5:45," Conan/Shinichi said. "Doing so should leave no doubt in your minds as to what really happened here today."

Every eye turned to the Hyakuyas, who both knew they were beat.

Ryoji gritted his teeth. "That old b****rd deserved it."

"Why would you say such a thing?" the groundskeeper, who had overheard a good chunk of the conversation, said. "The Reverend was a good man."

"He was a self-righteous hypocrite!" Misa declared. "A friend of ours went to his house one day about a year ago. The door was cracked open so she entered. She found the Reverend in his closet, muttering some prayer in another language. And at one point during it he said, 'Eto Mine'. The name of mom's killer."

"He was praying for that son of a b***h!" Ryoji said. "He was praying for his soul! For an insult like that, to mom's memory, we had to make him pay. We had to make him pay dearly. And that he did...!

"You're wrong, you know."

They all turned to Yasuda.

"He probably didn't mention any names in that prayer," Yasuda said. "What he really said was probably this: _Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen._ That translates to: Eternal rest, grant unto them, oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. What I just recited was a Catholic intercessory prayer for those in Purgatory, or Hell. It was probably a general petition to God on behalf of those departed souls who, according to Catholic doctrine, do not now enjoy eternal rest in Heaven."

"Y-You mean..."

"We killed the Reverend for...

"NOTHING?!"

They fell to their knees. Misa began weeping openly, whereas Ryoji began pounding the dirt with his fists in sorrow and frustration. They had killed an honest man, without justification, and for that they would spend much of what remained of their lives behind bars.

 **Ending**

( _Hikari_ by Hikaru Utada, main theme to the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts)

 _Donna toki datte_

 _Tada hitori de_

 _Unmei wasurete_

 _Ikite kita no ni_

 _Totsuzen no hikari no naka me ga sameru_

 _Mayonaka ni_

 _Shizuka ni deguchi ni tatte_

 _Kurayami ni hikari o ute_

 _Imadoki yakusoku nante fuan ni saseru dake kana_

 _Negai o kuchi ni shitai dake sa_

 _Kazoku ni mo shoukai suru yo_

 _Kitto umaku iku yo_

 _Donna toki datte_

 _Zutto futari de_

 _Donna toki datte_

 _Soba ni iru kara_

 _Kimi to iu hikari ga watashi o mitsukeru_

 _Mayonaka ni_

 **Post-Ending**

 **The Next Day**

"Good morning," the Receptionist said. "Will you two be checking out now? You still have about two hours before that's required."

"Nah, we're good," Conan said. "We called a friend to come pick us up. They should be here in about twenty or thirty minutes."

"Okay then. I hope you and your parents enjoyed your stay."

"R-Right," Conan and Nancy said awkwardly.

Their bags in tow, they headed outside.

"I must say," Nancy said, "that was pretty impressive, when Yasuda-san just went and recited that Latin prayer."

"He must have experience with the Church," Conan said.

He stopped.

"What's wrong?" Nancy asked.

"One thing still doesn't add up," Conan said. "He just happened to be digging through the garbage and stumbled across the pair of clothes used by the killer?"

"What are you thinking?"

"It's nothing more than a hunch, but...I think he knew beforehand that the murder was going to happen."

"And he said nothing? Did nothing to stop it?" Nancy said. "Why would he do that?"

"Maybe...the killer inadvertently ended up doing his dirty work for him, so he didn't want to interfere?"

"Dirty work?"

"Killing the Reverend, before we could talk to him."

They were silent, and stood waiting for the Professor to come for them.

 **Scene Transition**

Yasuda packed everything and was about to leave his room.

Then he stopped, because it hit him:

"Respect," he muttered. "It was the respect that he had for his enemy. That was what broke the cycle. Hmm. Crude, but it could work. In any case, I see now that I cannot give up on my life's work."

He went downstairs, checked out, and went outside, just to see Conan and Nancy leaving in a small yellow car.

Upon observing this, he said:

"That boy, Conan Edogawa...I'll have to be mindful of him going forward. He's the kind of person who you can't stop from meddling. If I'm not careful, he could ruin everything."


End file.
